Disney has taken “Star Wars” in a new direction over the two most recent additions that have left fans mostly satisfied. However, as of the newest addition in the Star Wars franchise the “Last Jedi”, has taken a complete turn from the Star Wars norm. The highly anticipated “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” shocked many viewers with how much worse it was than it was expected to be. Seen as even worse than the notorious prequels the movie now has the lowest score of any “Star Wars” movie on rotten tomatoes. The main reason the “Last Jedi” wasn’t to fans’ tastes is because Disney began to add in many characteristics seen in other Disney movies that don’t mesh well with Star Wars.

“Star Wars” is known for its sci-fi action, adventurous setting, and its witty humor from loveable characters. Characters develop quite well over the time of the multiple movies, the overall story of each episode has been a journey throughout many planets, and there is a constant change of pace. However “Star Wars the Last Jedi” held almost none of these ideas, and incorporated many bad ones in their stead.

Through the whole episode, a chase scene was taking place in which the Rebel’s ship was slowly running out of fuel, and the First Order was slowly catching up to them. This is well and good except for the fact that more than half the movie takes place in space with this ship flying away from the First Order taking away from the biggest part of “Star Wars” which is seeing new exciting planets come and go with some good development. Sure there were some planets in the episode that main characters visit, but none of them really added anything to the “Star Wars” universe. One planet, Contoncia, was given some development as it is shown as a beautiful place, but then exposed for all of its falsehoods, However this takes place over ten minutes, and viewers are unable to take in any of the details of the planet.
Another huge detail that was taken out of the newest movie was the development of characters with each other in general except for Rey, and Kylo Ren. Through the movie one sees Rey slowly learning the ways of the Jedi…maybe? At the very least Rey was having a sort of existential crisis as she tried to find her “place in all of this”. There isn’t much development because after all is said and done, she still has no idea about anything. Kylo Ren, however, sees some true character development as he almost turns to the side of the Jedi, and takes down his master. Then gaining an even bigger resolve to fight for himself and against the universe, he becomes a new, angrier version of his old self. That’s all the development that one will be able to see. Other main characters to the series, the pilot Poe Dameron, and ex-First Order Finn, see no development, except a forced romance for Finn.

Rose Tico, the newest addition to the main cast of main “Star Wars” characters, shows up unexpectedly, and would benefit the series by leaving just as quickly as she came. Rose follows Finn on his adventures to find a hacker to get into the First Order’s ship. Through these adventures, Rose served the purpose of notorious Jar Jar binks of the “Star Wars” prequels, meaning she has no purpose in his adventure at all. On the Casino planet Rose saved some animals with Finn’s help, and then went on later to help the First Order. When Finn was going to sacrifice himself so that he could destroy the cannon that would put a hole in the Rebel base, Rose instead saved Finn, allowing the First Order to punch through Rebel defenses, forcing Luke Skywalker to buy time for the rebels to leave, ending in his death. Rose then kisses Finn, and says, “That’s how we’re going to win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love” only to put the rest of the rebellion in grave danger her actions.

The last critique seen as nitpicky by some is that “The Last Jedi” incorporated some of the worst humor ever to be seen in a “Star Wars” movie. What was usually well-placed, witty humour from characters that you’d expect was turned into bad jokes. These bad jokes went anywhere to ruining a serious scene like Luke rubbing off his shoulders in the middle of a fight, to Poe Dameron making what was the equivalent of a “your mom” joke to a leader of the First Order. The only reason I still call these jokes is because they do get a laugh out of me, a laugh at how ridiculous and random they were.

All in all, “The Last Jedi” was one of the most unfavorable, and arguably the worst “Star Wars” movie to come out to date. Reviews everywhere have been placing it lower than the prequels, which have held the place of worst “Star Wars” movies for over a decade. A petition was even sent out and signed by fifty thousand people arguing to make the movie not canon to the “Star Wars” universe, basically to make sure everyone would forget about it. Though “The Last Jedi” was such a let down, many fans are not letting it get to them too much, and eagerly await the next edition in the hope that it will redeem the series. Summed up by West Milford teacher Mr. Nitkinas “I found it was poorly plotted, poorly paced, and an empty filler of a film. It didn’t need to exist.”